The use of engineered nanomaterials has increased as a result of their positive impact on many sectors of the economy, including agriculture. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are now used to enhance seed germination, plant growth, and photosynthetic quantum efficiency and as antimicrobial agents to control plant diseases. In this study, we examined the effect of AgNP dosage on the seed germination ...

Enhancement of salinity tolerance during seed germination is very important for direct seeding in rice. In this study, the salt-tolerant japonica landrace Jiucaiqing was used to determine the regulators that are involved in seed imbibition under salt stress. Briefly, the comparative proteomic analysis was conducted between dry (0 h) and imbibed (24 h) seeds with 150 mM NaCl. Under salt stress, ...

This paper presents a unique application of computer vision methods designed to detect germination of lettuce seeds under controlled environment. Two steps involved in this application are image acquisition and image analysis which uses image skeletonization and other image processing algorithms. Seed images are converted to binary images followed by extraction of seed skeletons, which are used...

Garden orache (Atriplex hortensis L.), a halophytic forb in the family Chenopodiaceae, is well adapted to dry saline habitats. Here, we presented the results of the effect of salinity and seed weight on seed germination and radicle emergence of A. hortensis. Highest germination percentages were obtained under non-saline conditions and increases in salinity inhibited seed germination with less t...

The regulator of G-protein signaling (RGS) proteins, recently identified in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana; named as AtRGS1), has a predicted seven-transmembrane structure as well as an RGS box with GTPase-accelerating activity and thus desensitizes the G-protein-mediated signaling. The roles of AtRGS1 proteins in Arabidopsis seed germination and their possible interactions with sugars and a...

Seed germination strategies vary dramatically among species but relatively little is known about how germination traits correlate with other elements of plant strategy systems. Understanding drivers of germination strategy is critical to our understanding of the evolutionary biology of plant reproduction.We present a novel assessment of seed germination strategies focussing on Australian alpine...

Most plant seeds are dispersed in a dry, mature state. If these seeds are non-dormant and the environmental conditions are favourable, they will pass through the complex process of germination. In this review, recent progress made with state-of-the-art techniques including genome-wide gene expression analyses that provided deeper insight into the early phase of seed germination, which includes ...

Due to increasing demand for medicinal and horticultural uses, the Orchidaceae is in urgent need of innovative and novel propagation techniques that address both market demand and conservation. Traditionally, restoration techniques have been centered on ex situ asymbiotic or symbiotic seed germination techniques that are not cost-effective, have limited genetic potential and often result in low...

Native forest in Mauritius has been reduced to patchy degraded fragments and the extinction risk of constituent rare endemic plants is compounded by poor seed germination (Page & D’Argent, 1997; Safford, 1997; Nyhagen et al., 2005). Endemic fruiting plants evolved alongside a number of ecologically important large frugivores that are now extinct, such as the dodo (Raphus cucullatus L.) and two ...

Domestication has resulted in selection upon seed traits found in wild populations, yet crop-wild hybrids retain some aspects of both parental phenotypes. Seed fates of germination, dormancy, and mortality can influence the success of crop allele introgression in crop-wild hybrid zones, especially if crop alleles or crop-imparted seed coverings result in out-of-season germination. We performed ...